


I Need You!

by twilymeeks



Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Dadspeed, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sick Character, Sickfic, dadsquared, yeah we tagging dadspeed baby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-01-23 23:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21328288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilymeeks/pseuds/twilymeeks
Summary: After falling terribly ill, the Team Squad nurses Avocato back to health.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 77





	1. Chapter 1

**A pulsing sensation.**

Avocato could feel his heart beating out of his chest, each breath becoming more painful than the last as his lungs began to ache. He felt nausea crawling up his throat, and his vision became nothing but dizzying at best. He could feel his legs lose all of their feeling and the beast eyes of the Lord Commander looking up at him ready to  _ strangle him and watch him die until— _

-

— _ his heart jumped out of his chest _ .

He could feel his head pulsating, and let out a groan. He could feel the sweat on his skin, his fur sucking up all the moisture. He let out a rough cough, and put a hand to his forehead.

_ Dammit. _

His forehead was still blazing hot. It had already been a few days since Avocato had started feeling like this—first just plain old fatigue, and now chills and all sorts of feverish symptoms. He contemplated once again whether he’d be up for eating breakfast, but his stomach groaned nauseously in response. Another day of throwing away breakfast, since he could barely eat a reasonable portion without feeling like he couldn’t hold it down. He could feel his fur stand up on it’s ends as chills ran down his spine. Slapping his cheek slightly, he got up out of bed and let out a yawn.

**Today was going to be another long day.**

-

This was even worse than he could’ve imagined.

Usually he was able to mask it easily—but today it felt as if he was being pushed to his limits. All the pain and nausea he’d felt over the past few days had been dialed up to eleven, and keeping a composed demeanor was already difficult as is. He was already repairing faulty cables with his son, and by the glances he’d been giving him, he could tell something was up.

“Hey dad, you good?” Little Cato asked.

“You’ve been staring at the same cables for a while.”

Avocato snapped out of his daze, and forced out a chuckle.

“Didn’t have the best night. Still getting used to things around here.” Avocato replied.

“Considering you were possessed  _ and _ brought back from the dead? Makes sense.” Little Cato replied.

“All of us on the Crimson Light have sleepless nights every now and then…”

Little Cato’s voice trailed off as he looked off into space, a soft frown visible on his face. But seconds later, he covered it up, continuing to talk to his dad.

“Do you want a coffee or something? They’ve got a Ventrexian brew in the coffee shop.” Little Cato said.

“Coffee shop? Man, now I  _ really _ get Gary’s frustrations..” Avocato replied, letting out a more natural laugh than before.

“Maybe later. I’m gonna go up to the east side real quick to check on progress.”

“Gotcha! Spidercat over here’s gonna fix these cables so good!” A grin formed on his face as he fixated on each cable.

Avocato couldn’t help but smile, and left to go to the eastern side of the Crimson Light. But as soon as he left the room, that smile immediately diminished. He put a hand on his face, and walked to the nearest restroom. 

_ So hot.. _

Avocato could feel his body burning up. He stared at the faucet, keeping his balance by gripping onto the edges of the sink. Dizziness clouded his conscience, and Avocato let out a ragged breath. The environment around him began to swirl, and Avocato slowly sat down, burying his head in his knees in an attempt to let the dizziness pass by. The more the room spun, the more nauseous he became. Just getting up would already be a chore for him to do, but in reality, he had to. His son would become suspicious if he were gone for a while, and plus he had to look as healthy as possible. 

**The Lord Commander disliked weakness, and in the end, it made him fearful of it himself.**

Avocato stepped up, balancing himself as he held the edge of the sink. The room was spinning even more than before, and he could feel his skin growing cold. His vision had become spotted, and he couldn’t even take a single second to think as his consciousness began to tune pitch black. He slapped his cheek once again, and whispered to himself.

_ Get it together, man. _

The dizziness had disappeared a bit, and he felt like he could go on a while longer.

**He just needed to make sure he could.**

-

“Man, this is  _ good _ !” Gary exclaimed.

Gary’s happy demeanor lit up the room like a firecracker as he ate what Gary called ‘space yams’. 

“You know they’re not called yams, they’re-”

Ash went to correct Gary, but Gary interrupted her by calling AVA. 

“AVA, status of the repair’s effects?” Gary said.

“They've made  _ quite _ an impact. It’s a very good thing that we got them over with now.” AVA replied.

“It already seems like the ship’s running much smoother than before.” Quinn replied.

“Good work, everyone.”

The crew made a toast, and continued to eat their meal. As the crew bloomed with chatter and stories to tell, Avocato was silent. Nearly everything that was being said was nothing but muffled noise to him as he tried to focus on ridding himself of that dizzying feeling. His stomach wasn’t exactly satisfied with the sudden intake of food either, since there was no place he could throw it away without it being noticeable. Usually he’d feed leftovers to Mooncake, but it seemed Mooncake was more busy mingling with the other members and speaking in...whatever language he spoke.

“-ocato?”

“-ey, Avocato!”

“Avocato!”

Avocato jumped a bit, and looked towards the location of the voice. It was none other than Quinn, who was clearly calling out to him.

“You good?” Quinn asked.

“You haven’t said a single word since we’ve gotten here.”

“R-Really? I didn’t notice.” Avocato replied.

He could feel the room spin around him once again, even more than in the restroom.

“You’re usually the one who calls out Gary whenever he just say something...really weird.” Quinn said.

“Now that I mentioned it, you’ve been acting strange the past few days.”

“It’s nothing, Quinn. I’m just trying to get used to things..” Avocato replied. 

At this point, he could feel the sound of his heartbeat to a large degree. His head began to pulsate as the room spun more than before.

“Don’t give me any bullshit.” Quinn replied.

“Just tell us what’s going on, Avocato.”

“Hey, where are you going?”

“¿oʇɐɔoʌ∀” 

Everything had become fuzz—his stomach rolled with the onslaught of dizziness as Avocato bolted to the door. But in reality, he didn’t make it that far.

**By the time he reached the door, his body had already hit the cold, hard floor.**

**-**

The entire room went silent. For a second, everyone was trying to process what just happened, until-

“ **DAD!!!** ”

Little Cato screamed, and ran over to him, along with the others.

Little Cato shook his body in an attempt to wake him up, but his eyes widened when he noticed something else.

**His body was warm. Too warm.**

“He’s burning up. Badly.” Ash said, concern in her voice.

“Fox, carry him to the med bay. AVA, we’re gonna need you to activate a recovery pod.” 

“Right away, Ash.” AVA replied.

“From what I’ve observed, it seems that he’s been in this condition for quite a while. My approximate calculation is... _ about 10 days _ .”

“ **Ten days** ?!” Quinn said.

“Why didn’t he say anything?” 

“Perhaps it’s some sort of emotional conflict..” HUE replied.

“That could be one possibility about why he informed no one of his current condition.”

“That still doesn’t freakin’ change the fact that he never told us…” Gary said.

“We don’t know how bad this has gotten!”

“Well, my system just indicated that Avocato has been put into a recovery pod.” AVA rebutted.

“I can explain the details once you arrive in the med bay.” 

“Thanks, AVA.” Little Cato said.

Gary took a glance at Little Cato as they ran to the med bay. A large amount of worry covered his face, in fact, everyone was on edge from just how sudden this was. Gary couldn’t help but feel worried along with them...if this turned out to be worse than he initially was thinking, he couldn’t imagine what Avocato would have to go through. 

Soon, they arrived at the med bay. Gary could see Ash and Fox watching Avocato closely. 

“Avocato’s body temperature is at a dangerous level. He’s suffering from a high-grade fever of 104 degrees.” AVA replied.

“His condition is not life threatening, but they are quite severe for a fever. He’s experiencing symptoms such as nausea, chills, hot flashes, and severe headaches. He’s currently stable, but I’ll be watching his condition closely.”

Gary sighed, and look at Avocato through the glass. His expression looked quite tired—he could see beads of sweat on his fur, and the stress on his face was evident. Gary frowned, and looked over to Little Cato, whose face was colored with even more worry. The others had talked with AVA, and afterwards they’d retreated to either get medicinal supplies, or work on managing the ship. The only person who’d stayed behind was Quinn, biting her lip. She glanced towards Little Cato, and walked towards him. She crouched down slightly, and put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. The boy smiled faintly, and held that hand tight. At that point, Gary had also approached the small ventrexian.

“Your dad’s gonna be alright, okay?” Gary said.

“He’s like, the  _ toughest  _ cat man I know. Like Tony Stark but if he licked himself.”

Little Cato chuckled a bit, and hugged Gary. Gary pulled the ventrexian closer to him, his small body trembling. He knew the kid was worried, so he needed to be there for him.

** _And throughout the rest of the night, tensions loomed throughout the Crimson Light._ **

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**It had been a few hours since the incident.**

Despite how much Little Cato wanted to stay behind to watch his dad, Gary insisted that he head on to bed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want the boy to be at his father’s side-rather, the boy himself had his fair share of sleepless, nightmare-filled nights over the past few days. Little Cato needed the rest, and in case another panic attack came his way, Fox would be there to help the boy through thick and thin. Avocato was still in the recovery pod, with AVA giving him updates every few minutes on his condition. So, how did Gary pass the time here in the first place?

“...you know I don’t like remembering that, HUE.” Gary groaned.

“That crap was freakin’ like, painful! Do you know how itchy a giant purple space rash can be?”

“I do, Gary.” HUE replied.

“I’m programmed to know the severity and information of all illnesses known in the universe. I warned you about touching it while repairing the Galaxy One, but you were too airheaded to listen to me.”

“You can’t just tell me to _not_ touch it. That makes the urge stronger!” Gary rebutted.

“Your rationale is quite questionable Gary.” HUE said.

“Although, I feel that you’ve changed quite a lot since Mooncake had come into your life.”

“You know, I feel the same way.” Gary replied.

“I don’t know how to explain it but it’s like...this _pitch black _void of negative juices is being overrun by all these positive ones. It’s a nice feeling.” 

Gary couldn't help but crack a soft smile, and HUE scooted closer to Gary.

“You’ve progressed _quite_ a lot, Gary.” HUE said, his metallic voice turning a bit chipper.

“Perhaps it’s time I made another-”

“Don’t say it.” Gary said.

“HUE, don’t you _freakin_’ say it-”

“--progress report.” HUE replied.

“**Dang it**, HUE!” Gary groaned.

“You know how much I hate doing these.”

“Prisoners are _always_ evaluated on their mental health, Gary.” HUE replied.

“There are some cases in which mental health is the cause for one commiting a crime. Your case may have not leaned towards that side, but they still ordered a diagnosis in _your_ favor, Gary.”

Gary grumbled a bit, and let out a sigh.

“Let’s just get this over with--”

Gary spoke, when he was suddenly interrupted by AVA.

“I don’t want to interrupt your therapy session, but I have great news. Avocato’s body temperature has died down by nearly two and a half degrees. His condition is no longer critical enough to be left in a recovery pod. He’ll need to be checked upon in the med bay every six hours, but for now, he can be moved into one of the rooms. Just make sure he doesn’t overexert himself, and he’ll recover in no time.” AVA explained.

“Looks like this report will have to wait, HUE.” Gary said.

“Get the required medications from AVA, and I’ll take my friend over here to his room.” 

The recovery pod opened, and Avocato slowly leaned upwards. He looked a lot better than before, but he could tell he hadn’t exactly had a full recovery. His movements were sluggish, putting a palm to his face.

Gary walked over to Avocato, and helped him out of the pod. The ventrexian looked to be in a daze, his eyes glossy as he balanced himself onto Gary. Gary could feel the warmth radiating from Avocato’s body as he walked him to his room. He could tell Avocato was way too tired to put up a fight--if Avocato had his senses together, he’d refuse this sort of thing in an instant. He was more of the independent type, and seeing Avocato this vulnerable was odd to Gary. As Gary arrived in the room, he slowly helped Avocato into his bed, and put a blanket over him. Carrying a wet towel, HUE came in and put the towel on Avocato’s forehead.

“I’ve also brought a bucket just in case.” HUE said, holding it with his other arm.

Gary whispered a thank you to HUE quietly, and HUE walked closer to him.

“I believe it’s Quinn’s turn on watch duty.” HUE said.

“You’ve been up for a long time, Gary. You need the rest.”

“It’s been _that_ long, huh?” Gary laughed.

“Perhaps in the morning, we can continue-” HUE replied, before being interrupted by Gary.

“I know, HUE…” Gary grumbled.

“I’m not going to avoid it. Promise.”

The light on top of HUE’s head began to glow red and flash.

“_I’m looking forward to our conversation, Gary._”

As HUE left the room, he couldn’t help but smile just a bit. Going to grab the bucket, Gary walked towards it-

-**until a hand grabbed his arm**.

Gary jumped, and turned around to see Avocato, who was looking at him dead in the eyes. His cheeks were flushed, and his grip around Gary’s arm was tight.

“**D-Don’t go**.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was gonna be just two parts buuuuuuuut ideas sifted quite a bit so there’s more material now. I hope you look forward to the next chapter .


	3. Chapter 3

Avocato’s hand gripped Gary’s tightly. He could feel a surprising amount of strength in his hand, and looked him in the eye. His expression was filled with fear and desperation—it was almost as if he were afraid something was going to happen if he’d left. Gary took notice of a stool right next to the desk, and slid it over next to the bed, near Avocato. 

“I’m not going anywhere, buddy.” Gary said.

“At least, until Quinn comes to take over watching duty.”

Gary’s hand was still intertwined with Avocato’s, and he held it gently. Avocato didn’t seem to have any intention of letting go, and kept a steady grip on his hand. A brush of concern had begun to wash over Gary, as the look in the Ventrexian’s eyes was becoming much more distant. 

“I—I’m so sorry.” Gary’s eyes widened at Avocato’s words.

“Avocato, you have  _ nothing _ to be sorry for.” Gary replied.

“You had no control over—”

“ **I’ve been a terrible father to you.** ”

Avocato’s voice began to crack. Gary’s expression turned into own of confusion.  _ Terrible father?  _ There was no way he could be talking about him, unless-

_ Oh crap. _

At the condition he was right now, AVA said he’d still be experiencing a multitude of symptoms. Mental confusion was one of these symptoms, and the evidence was clearly there. Avocato thought he was talking to his son, not him. Gary bit his lip as the awkward nature of this began to simmer. But at the same time, it left a pit of nerves swirling inside him, unsure of what was to come.

“I... **tried to kill yo** u.” Avocato replied.

“I nearly shot you to death for the Lord Commander, I’ve brought you so much  _ anguish _ from everything I’ve done. Hell, I nearly killed Gary...and he means  _ so much _ to you.”

Gary’s face paled. He hadn’t seen these sorts of feelings from Avocato since, well, ever. Never had he seen his best friend so vulnerable— **so broken** . His face was scrunched up, his eyes turning glossy as tears began to form in his eyes.

“It’s funny, right?” Avocato said.

“ _ So much _ has happened and yet...even now I don’t know what you think of me. I’ve been having these thoughts ever since our encounter with Invictus. These thoughts, these  _ terrible  _ thoughts that reek with toxicity..”

“Avocato, you gotta calm down.” Gary said, worried. Avocato’s chest was heaving at a rapid rate, and his breathing had become shallow and choked up. His eyes were still teary eyed, yet none have fallen. The Ventrexian’s grip on Gary’s hand had become tighter and filled with more desperation than before.

“Tell me, son. I’m a good person, right?” Avocato choked out.

“I’m... _ good _ , right?”

The tears that filled his eyes finally spilled as Gary finally sat up from the chair, hugging Avocato tightly. He stroked his fur, making his best attempts to calm down his friend. He whispered reassurances in his ear, and by the time Quinn had come in, Avocato was deeply asleep. 

“Looks like you tuckered him out.” Quinn said, laughing.

“By the way, you look like you just saw a ghost. Did something happen?”

“I-It’s nothing.” Gary said, laughing.

“I’m just as worried as you are...the dude managed to hide it for  _ this _ long. I’m just not sure why he wouldn’t tell us...he trusts us enough to tell us these things, right?” 

“Something’s up, but we shouldn’t really talk to him about that right now. Especially when he’s in this condition.” Quinn said.

“Get some rest, Gary. I’ll catch you up in the morning, okay?” 

Gary’s hands shook in unease, his chest filled with worry.

“ **Okay** .”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, hasn't it?

When Avocato opened his eyes, he couldn’t seem to grasp his situation at first. The world around felt a little more blurred than usual as he opened his eyes, but the moment he’d tried to sit up, all sorts of waves began to hit him. A soreness he’d never experienced before racked his body as he positioned his body upright. A small headache pounced at his skull, not to mention it feel like he hadn’t eaten anything proper in a while. In fact, how long was he asleep for?

“Oh my crap, Avocato!”

A familiar voice rang in his ears, one of a certain blonde crewmate. Gary whipped his head up, with something along the lines of a pillow next to him. He rubbed his eyes as he got on his feet, walking over to his ‘patient’.

“Gary, what the _hell_ happened?” Avocato said, groaning.

“I thought we were fixing the ship.”

“Haha! Avocato my friend, it’s been quite the long journey.” Gary replied.

“A journey so big, so gravitational, that even Invictus won’t even take it.”

“Gary.” Avocato growled, with Gary chuckling in response.

“Lemme just try to sum it up without giving you a heart attack. You’ve lost _one_ out of nine lives, my man!” Gary said, with Avocato giving a not so amused expression in return.

“If anything, you my friend have got some big explaining to do to us! You freakin’ collapsed in the kitchen quarters!”

“I what?!” Avocato shouted, putting a hand to his face.

“Don’t worry, man! It’s only been like, a day and a half since then? You are not ten years in the future.” Gary replied.

“We’ve all been pretty worried about you. Little Cato was freaking out.”

A tinge of anxiety entered Avocato’s chest hearing Gary’s words. Worrying Little Cato was the opposite of what he wanted to do. Nwo that he thought about it, everyone worrying only proved his mind right. A wave of memories began to flow into his mind, his actions before echoing in his mind until his eventual collapse.

“I know you’d think I would forget, but you’ve got some fessing up to do. HUE told us about your condition when you collapsed.” Gary said, his tone growing more cold.

“Why the hell would you not say anything? HUE said you were feeling like this for almost _two weeks_!”

“Nothing that concerns you, Gary.” Avocato replied.

“It does concern me.” Gary snapped.

“Avocato, we’re in Final Space. There’s no turning back from this. If this was something deadly, you don’t realize how much it’d affect us. We already lost you once, man. It wouldn’t be right to lose you again."

Gary took a deep breath in, and continued to speak.

“Do you...trust me?” Gary asked.

“Dude, of course I do. You’re one of my only friends.” Avocato replied.

“Well Avocato, in the book of absolute friendship, it says that good friends put their trust in one another.” Gary replied.

“When I brought you here, you were really like, out of it. You said some crap that kinda stuck with me, so much I had a hard time sleeping last night. You were talking about your boy, and that got me thinking...you’re afraid, aren’t you? Of yourself.”

“G-Gary, that’s ridiculous. I’m fine.” Avocato replied.

“Then if you were fine, you would’ve told us!” Gary snapped.

“You think I haven’t seen you acting off-balance? Ever since we saved you from Invictus, you’ve been hesitant about so many freakin’ things! Instead of acting so shady, why don't you just tell us what’s going on?!”

  
  


“I’m afraid, okay? Did you get your fucking answer?!” Avocato shouted, immediately regretting the tone of his voice. He looked away from Gary, and down on the blanket covers. The only thing swirling through his mind was instant regret.

“I-I-I’m afraid of hurting someone else. I’ve had thoughts of Invictus coming for me again, dreams of Lord Commander. Everything I’ve done, every path I’ve taken has led to destruction and nothing else. If things have gone wrong before, bad things are guaranteed to happen again.”

Gary looked at Avocato, his concerns only growing. He knew that Avocato had been feeling a bit off since his revival. He knew Avocato more than anyone here, and knew things even Little Cato didn’t know about his dad. But even so, the things Avocato was saying had caught him off guard.

“We’re not gonna let that happen to you again,” Gary replied, putting a hand on the ventrexian’s shoulder.

“And if it does, we’ll fight that demon off like we’re in Fight Club. We were able to get him out of you once, and we’ll be able to do it again. Not to mention the hordes of zombie clones of myself. If I’m being honest, when I saw all of them for the first time, it freaked me the hell out, man.”

Avocato looked at Gary in the eyes. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t taking into consideration the circumstances they were in. There was no turning back, and if one of them died, there was no going back. No revival like what had happened to him, just a cold, hard end. Gary noticed the tension in his face, and cupped Avocato’s face. 

“It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to get help. I know that first hand from HUE...he’ll definitely lend an ear, and so will the rest of us. All this change is overwhelming, and I get it. We’re gonna kick some titan ass, you hear me?” Gary said, hugging Avocato tight. 

Admittedly, Gary wasn’t the best at comforting others. Usually he was the one being comforted, but taking on the role of Little Cato’s other dad made him improve in this department. To Gary’s delight, Avocato hugged back, although a little tighter than him. He could tell Avocato was definitely trying not to break down in front of him, but that was a wall Gary was willing to break. Gary hugged tighter in response, feeling the wet sensation of tears on his jacket. He rubbed the ventrexian’s back, and reassured him that everything, even in these circumstances, would be okay.

**It wasn’t a guarantee, but it was a hope he desperately clung onto.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends!! It's bene a while since this little project updated, and it's finally going to come to a close! Chapter 5 will be the final chapter, so look forward to it!! I'm very excited for Season 3 as well...more material means more fics!!


End file.
